THE CHANCE for charities to win much needed funding for the vital work they do in the borough is here again - and they need readers’ help.

The Hounslow Chronicle and Barclays are launching the Let’s Do It Awards this week, and are inviting you to nominate the organisations making a difference.

To celebrate the sixth year of the awards we have once again included a Barclays Money Skills Award, which will provide the winning organisation not only with money to fulfil their dreams, but also with training on money management from Barclays staff.

Barclays Money Skills is our long-term commitment to helping people improve their confidence and ability to manage money. This includes budgeting, making informed financial choices and knowing where to get help.

Working with money everyday means we’ve got a lot of financial knowledge to share so to make the biggest difference we can we support our staff in volunteering to deliver interactive Barclays Money Skills activities in local schools and charities.

Here are the prizes:

We are offering a 1st prize of £1000, a Barclays Money Skills Award of £1,000 and two runner up prizes of £500 each. These will all be paid in the form of direct payments from Charities Aid Foundation on behalf of Barclays.

As our final prize, we are also making available a team of local Barclays staff who will volunteer their services to support a charity or community organisation for a day along with a volunteering grant of up to £750 to be used specifically to purchase materials/costs of associated volunteering.

Examples can include decorating, gardening, outings to leisure and places of interest, celebratory parties.

Please ring community manager Nicholas Smith 02082735960 with any questions.

Whether you know of a charity that you think deserves the money or are involved with an organisation yourself then this is the chance to really make a difference.

To enter please complete the form below. Please note applications will only be accepted from registered charities or not for profit organisations.

Anyone can enter whether you help out with a registered charity, organise a scout group or just know a local organisation that needs some help. The closing date for receipt of applications is March 1, 2012. Shortlisted entrants will be notified with an award ceremony taking place in April/May 2012.

Nigel Taylor, network director, said: “Barclays strengthen the local communities in which we live and work by supporting a broad range of causes at a very local level. This competition ensures that Barclays community funds are made available to charities and community groups in the local area that are most in need. We look forward to hearing about the excellent and worthwhile projects happening in the local area.

“Barclays are really pleased to be working in partnership with the Hounslow Chronicle.”

"At Barclays, we take our responsibilities seriously. We are really proud of our leading community investment programme. In 2010, we invested £55.3m in communities around the world in 31 countries reaching more than 11.5 million people worldwide. We supported our staff getting involved in fundraising, volunteering and regular giving initiatives.

"Our employees are the driving force behind our community investment programme, with 62,118 colleagues volunteering their time and raising funds to benefit over 8,200 charities and community groups in 2010. Over the last three years Barclays people have raised over £48.9 million for their favourite charities with our help and matched funding.

"Barclays is one of 21 pioneering companies to achieve the Business in the Community ‘CommunityMark’. The CommunityMark is a new national standard that recognises companies that are best investors in their communities.